Persona
Persona "Persona - A portrayed personality, such as in a play or story. A set of assumed or synthetic behaviors. From the Latin; Persona, meaning; Person." A persona is the “person” you will be portraying in the HFS. Most personas are reality-based, fantasy-based, or a combination of the two. All personas should be from a pre-industrial society. You should not take the name of an actual historic figure or a famous character from a book or movie. A persona should be a unique creation, something you are comfortable with. In your first few months of playing, don't worry about the details. Personas often grow and develop over time. It enriches the experience and ultimately improves the game for everyone. Many people want to develop a persona but are unsure where to begin. What information does one need to obtain to have a good persona story? Steps to Developing a Persona 1. Choose a Culture To be able to select a HFS name for yourself and begin creating your persona story, you should first decide what culture you desire to be from. There are many means useable to determine what culture you ought to choose. Some people look at the garb worn by many cultures throughout various times and establish a selection based on what clothes they want to wear. Other people will think about what activities and crafts they are interested in and base a decision on the cultures known for expertise in those areas. Still others will investigate their personal lineage and choose the background of their family heritage as their HFS culture. Yet others will pick their HFS culture based from a historical interest on a particular society or a favorite swords & sorcery book. Whatever means you choose to use is quite acceptable. 2. Decide Upon a Time Period This can be fairly easy if you already know there are certain styles of garment or armor that you like and want to create. Or if there is a particular historical occurrence you want your character to have been around for. Otherwise you will need to do some basic research into the various time periods of the culture you have selected and see what appeals to you. 3. Select a Name Once you have selected the culture and time period you wish to take on for your persona, you are ready to select a name for yourself. Each culture had its own naming practices, or manner in which names were given. To fit into the persona you are creating, you should investigate the culture, and see what kind of names people associated with that era utilized. Do not name yourself after an actual historical personage, a legendary personage, a literary character, or a copyrighted character or favorite movie character. These names are problematic. Some are copyrighted. You may not take any title of nobility, or take a name that denotes a rank. A name should fit your persona. A Chinese courtier named Sven Larsson just wouldn't work. 4. Take the Name for a Test Drive Try using a name for a while. Write the name down and have your friends pronounce it. Do you like the way most people pronounce the name? Does the name lend itself to joking comments and if so, are you comfortable with that? Do you find it easy to respond when hearing someone call you by that name? Are a large number of folks in your local group already using that name element, making confusion of who is who possible? All of these are factors to consider before making a final choice on a name. 5. Fleshing Out the Details Once you’ve settled on a name, how much further you develop your persona is up to you. You already have the most basic of personas…name, culture and time period. You can stop there. The choice of focus is yours. If you so choose, you can begin to add particulars to the persona story. Your character’s history can be fairly simple, consisting of your HFS name, the time and place your persona is from, and a few facts such as occupation, social status and general family information. Your persona’s life story can also be more complex and include a variety of factors such as: area/time of birth; languages spoken; occupation & craft skills; behavior/manners; pursuits/hobbies; weapons skills; travels; significant events during life (both historical and personal) and area/time of death. To accomplish creating a more multifaceted persona will take time and research. But do not feel pressured to develop a complicated story right away. You can start slow and add more details to the chronicle as you go along. A persona does not have to be stationary. It can change and grow with you. Don’t be afraid to change your name and/or culture and/or time period and/or persona story (even after you’ve had it for a while). This can be a small change or changing it totally. Many folks begin playing in the HFS with a particular focus or goal and as time passes that focus changes. This can result from discovering new interests that one gets involved in, finding out the original area of interest just “isn’t you” or wanting to mesh more closely with the personas of other folks you’ve become connected with. Do not let yourself be limited…feel free to change. Following are a series of questions collected from various sources designed to show what information most people consider needs to collect to develop a full fleshed-out persona. These questions are by no means all-inclusive, but hopefully will present at least a good starting point. Persona Development Questions It can be very hard to remember and catalogue information that's useful to persona development. This is a list of questions that, when answered, serve to build up a picture of a persona life. Whenever I find a factoid that helps answer a question, I note it down in my own copy of this document, which thus builds a picture of my persona. If you want to grade yourself on how complete your persona story is, give yourself 2 points for each question you can answer, then consult the scoring charts at the end of the article. 1. What is your persona’s name? 2. What year was your persona born? 3. What is your persona’s native country? 4. What is your persona’s current country? 5. What are the climates of your persona's native and current countries? 6. What are the terrains of your persona's native and current countries? 7. In what city/town/barn was your persona born? 8. What city does your persona currently claim as "home"? 9. What are/were your persona’s parents’ names? 10. What are/were your persona’s parents’ occupation(s)? 11. Does your persona have any siblings, and if so, are any still alive? 12. Is your persona married? 13. What are the marriage customs and typical age of marriage for your persona's culture/time-frame? 14. What type of building does your persona currently live in? 15. With whom does your persona live? 16. Are there members of your persona's household that are not related to your persona (servants/ retainers, wards/ fosterlings, guests, etc.)? 17. Were pets kept during your persona’s culture/time-frame? If so, what kind, if any, does your persona have? 18. What is your persona’s occupation? 19. How old is your persona? 20. How long do people like your persona tend to live? 21. What is your persona’s ethnicity? 22. Who is your persona’s current employer? 23. Would your persona have been literate in your chosen culture/time-frame? 24. What level of education does your persona have? 25. Where was your persona educated? 26. What languages does your persona speak? 27. What units of measure were used by your persona’s culture/time-frame? 28. What type of money did people of your persona’s culture/time-frame use? 29. What kind of legal system exists in your persona’s culture/time-frame, and who make the laws? 30. What is the status of women among your persona’s culture/time-frame, and can they own property or conduct business? 31. What major events have occurred during your persona’s lifetime? (Natural catastrophes, wars, revolutions, discoveries, etc.?) 32. Does your persona fight? If so, where did your persona learn to fight? 33 What type of armour and weapons were used by fighters in your persona’s culture/time-frame? And how were such obtained? 34. List your persona’s skills and hobbies. For each, write down where your persona learned them. 35. What "class" is your persona? (I.e., royalty, nobility, merchant, middle, artisan, slave, etc.) 36. How widely has your persona traveled? 37. In what capacity has your persona traveled? (I.e., military, sailor, rich person’s hobby, etc.) 38. Who is your persona’s current monarch? 39. Who is the current Pope during your persona time? 40. What religion is your persona? 41. What kind of religious duties would be required of your persona? 42. How did people of your persona’s culture/time-frame deal with trade? 43. With respect to international relations, does your persona favor colonization, isolationism, conquest/conversion, open trade, etc.? 44. How does your persona personally obtain goods (food, drink, clothes, etc.)? 45. How did people of your persona’s culture/time-frame tell time? 46. How did people of your persona’s culture/time-frame keep track of days? 47. What type of clothes does your persona normally wear? 48. What type of clothes does your persona wear for special occasions? 49. Are there any (sumptuary) laws restricting what your persona can wear? 50. What does your persona eat in a normal day? 51. How is food prepared and preserved in your persona’s culture/time-frame? 52. What spices were available to your persona and how expensive were they? 53. What were the eating habits of people of your persona’s culture/time-frame? 54. What are the cleaning/bathing habits of your persona’s culture/time-frame? 55. What types of wildlife live in your persona's area? 56. Name your persona’s favorite musicians/artists/dances. 57. What political figure/party/movement does your persona support? 58. Who is the most significant thinker of your persona’s time? 59. What does your persona consider to be the greatest social problem their country? 60. What is most likely to cause your persona’s death? 61. What type of medical aid is available in your persona’s culture/time-frame, and does your persona have access to it? 62. List at least three of your persona’s goals in life. (Learn to write, become apprenticed to a craftsman, visit the "big city", take over the family business, go to the Holy Land, usurp the crown, etc.) 63. What does your persona know of history/science/medicine/geography? 64. What’s the most striking scientific achievement of which your persona is aware? 65. Does your persona consider the Earth to be flat, round, or hollow? 66. Does your persona believe that the Earth revolves around the Sun, or vice-versa? 67. What does your persona consider to be the causes of criminal behavior? 68. What does your persona consider to be the true measure of a man? 69. Who has most influenced your persona’s thoughts on these questions? 70. Did your persona’s culture/time-frame have heraldry? SCORING *2 - 30 points § You have an introductory persona story. *32 - 60 points § You have a basic persona story. *62 - 90 points § You have a solid persona story. *62 - 80 points § You have an advanced persona story. *82 - 100 points § You have a very advanced persona story. *102 - 140 points § You have an extremely advanced persona story.